Where have men written with such tragic intensity?
Where has there been music suggesting such depths of sadness and of human passion?
And who has ever told upon canvas the story of the battlefield with such energy and with such thrilling reality, as has Verestchagin?
The youngest among the civilizations, and herself still only partially civilized, Russia is one of the most--if not the most--important factor in the world-problem to-day, and the one with which the future seems most seriously involved.

She has only just commenced to draw upon her vast stores of energy; energies which were accumulating during the ages when the other nations were lavishly spending theirs.

How will this colossal force be used in the future?
Moving silently and irresistibly toward the East, and guided by a subtle and far-reaching policy, who can foresee what will be the end, and what the ultimate destiny of the Empire which had its beginning in a small Slavonic State upon the Dnieper, and which, until a little more than a century ago, was too much of a barbarian to be admitted into the fraternity of European States.
The farthest removed from us in political ideals, Russia has in the various crises in our national life always been America's truest friend.

When others apparently nearer have failed us, she has stood steadfastly by us.

We can never forget it.